This paper deals with 20 Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) nest sites I studied in northern Colorado. Numerous references have described typical Goshawk nests (Bailey and Niedrach 1965; Bent 1937; Beebe and Webster 1964; Brown and Amadon 1969), but there are few detailed studies of their nest sites. Bartelt (1977) completed a study in South Dakota using data-gathering methods similar to this paper. Also, Reynolds (1971) and Reynolds and Wight (1978) described habitat requirements in Oregon.
For the purpose of this paper, a nest site is defined as the area immediately surrounding the nest in which most of the birds’ nesting activities occur. In most cases, this is confined to a definite size and age timber stand